The first time it happened was with Robert Ludlum’s ‘The Bourne Identity‘. I remember feeling a big wave of confusion and disappointment. This was about 20 years ago.
Then it happened again. It literally ruined the book for me. I watched the entire Hulu TV series ‘Little Fires Everywhere’, regretting every minute of it. I had just finished the novel with the same title a few days earlier. Shortly after I started reading it, I had found out that it had been developed for television…and so I thought it would be a wonderful idea to give it a shot. Like I said, I regret that decision.
Being my usual curious self, i decided to find our why these adaptations needed to have these changes at all. It turns out, reading and viewing are two completely different things and must be presented differently. One point I agreed with was the fact that if a book was to be made exactly as it was written, it would be boring for many because people watch television for entertainment and not to be bored.
Lately I have learned to take adaptations with an open mind, I have seen a few unnecessary changes in some adaptations but i must admit that I have come accross some very interesting ones too.
No matter how open my mind has become, I seem to have a problem with a particular change I have encountered in a Television adaptation. The creators of the beautiful TV series ‘The Chosen’ thought it would be wonderful idea for Simon the Zealot (one of Jesus’ disciples) to be the brother of the man by the pool of Bethesda. In as much as this makes for a good twist, it seems to be messing with my head. I found myself searching high and low for any clue to where this may have been mentioned previously in the Bible. I guess I will have to live with it.
I have made a small list of some of the books that have been made into movies that I really liked;
- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
- The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly
- The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
- The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks
- Normal People by Sally
Read some or watch some, either way you will love them.
Which ones have you seen or read? What do you think about them?
Long list of things that have blown minds like THE LORD OF THE RINGS, CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, [speaking of which, you know of the great friendship between C. S. Lewis and Tolkien?], etc…
It would be nice to see you write at some point about popular Christians who have transcended the religious genre to do great things.
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Wow. Thanks for this great insight. That must be some friendship.
Thank you for the idea. Let me study and learn about a few.
Thank you for such confidence in me by the way
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